…in San Francisco. Ahhhh! So great to see Kevin and Jesse and Jesse’s growing baby belly as we get closer to her due date (9/16). She looks beautiful even if pregnancy is making it harder and harder to breathe. Baby Ava is an active little one, so mama is feeling her now. I would share a lovely family photo IF I had remembered to take one … grrr… I even reminded everyone at dinner NOT to forget. We all forgot. *sigh* Very mad at myself for that. So, I will share a couple of my favorite pictures of the two of them instead.
And one from when Jack & Meg came to visit their big brother for his birthday last month.
Anyway, we arrived in Marin RV park (really a parking lot for RVs with a small pool) late Tuesday and just hung out there that evening. Not a long drive, but we dod get in to some traffic, so made it a different than most of the drives on the trip. Office was closed when we arrived, so we pulled in and set up – noticing the Trader Joe’s walking distance to our camper. We needed a few items, so we walked over, good to get the blood circulating again after sitting in the truck. Got back & then realized we forgot something we really needed that night, so off we went again to the store. At least we could walk.
We were excited to head in to spend the next couple of days in the city, staying with Kevin & Jesse at their lovely home in Outer Sunset. They were both working during the day, so we decided to take a bike ride out in Marin before heading in. We did the Paradise Loop, excellent ride — but we didn’t go all the way to the Golden Gate — just from our campground in Greenbrae, so about 26 miles.
Beautiful rolling hills, a good part of the ride was on trails too, and on the roads, not too much traffic, slow speed limits for the cars that were very aware that bikers were common to the route. We enjoyed the ride and fantastic views.
We cleaned up before heading in to SF so Jesse wouldn’t be offended by our gritty camper selves. She had asked in a text when we had last showered, so we exercised caution. As far as we could tell, we passed Jesse’s sniff test!
Jesse was in when we arrived and gave Brian the house tour. There had been some very nice furniture acquisitions since I had last visited only days after they had moved in, including many items for baby. Hospital bag packed & ready and clothes for Ava all organized and waiting for her arrival. She also showed us the garden where Kevin has been working on his green thumb – producing jalapeños and new buds for tomatoes. He gets such joy cultivating his plants, nice to see. We had also ordered more Trenary Toast delivered to their house, YEA, so we restocked for the remainder of our trip.
We caught up on our devices now that we had internet access. OMG, such quick internet. Been a long time since it performed so well! Jesse went to pick Kev up from work and I was so happy to see him when he arrived. I miss him so much and hope one day they will all return to NY so we can be closer.
We brought over some of the salmon we caught in Klamath and enjoyed a lovely dinner. Hung out catching up and watching a few episodes of Queer Eye that evening. Then we got to sleep in a queen size bed. So nice…
One of the things Brian was excited for and maybe a but nervous about was being able to weigh himself. We hadn’t had access to a scale since we launched our journey and we could tell he was losing weight with all the good food and exercise, just didn’t know how much. He had a goal for the trip – so now was the time to see how he was progressing. I told him to wait until morning because we weigh less then. Moment of truth…woohoo! 15lbs less. Excellent result, he was happy with that. Me, on the other hand, 0lbs. How is that possible? Same intense level of exercise, same food – nothing lost. I put it down to improving muscle mass, and my pre-trip exercise and nutrition levels. Sigh, just not fair. Even 1 lb, c’mon!!
Not letting it deter me, we needed to get some yoga in to counter the rides & hikes, so we walked about 1/2 mile to Ocean Beach Yoga and enjoyed an excellent Gentle Stretch & Strengthen class, perfect antidote! We took advantage of the intro offer – buy one class, next is free and went to an Align & Refine class the next day before heading back to Marin. The teachers were excellent, but our Align teacher, Nicole was hilarious. I would try to explain what was so funny, but it would not come across right; one of those you had to be there moments. I look forward to going back there when we are out looking after family when Ava arrives. Nice to have a “home studio” that is unpretentious, with excellent teachers and within walking distance.
I wanted to do the Land’s End trail with Brian, so we headed out there that afternoon. A bit crowded, but such a nice hike and some great views down by the beach and of the Golden Gate. We also went over to the Legion of Honor and when I asked if I could use the restroom, they said I could if I had an admission ticket. Oh well, hold it! If you haven’t been there, it is a beautiful building with a very moving Holocaust memorial outside and a Rodin Thinker statue in the plaza. Jack happened to call me just after our stop there and we both thought there was more than one Thinker statue cause I swore I had seen it in Baltimore. Wikipedia says that is so, but who knew!
Finished the trail and headed off to meet Anne (Mitchell) Moselle & her husband Dave in North Beach for a pint. But we had some time, so I tried to find the Crooked Street, but GPS took us somewhere in the vicinity, but we did not see it. Brian was getting a bit unnerved by the city traffic & my driving, so we headed over to North Beach, circled around looking for parking to no avail and wound up in a garage not built for trucks. I knocked over a cone, around the first turn – it was SO tight! – so I got out and let B park it.
Anne is a friend of the Garrett family since childhood and also happens to be a sorority sister of mine (go Kappa Delta!) from Cornell. After many, many years of not seeing Anne – we had now seen each other 2x in the last 2 months as she was at the wedding we attended in July too. I picked this picture up off Anne’s FB page, at least she remembered to take a picture.
We picked a cool Irish pub, Maggie McGarry’s, in that neighborhood – SF’s “Little Italy” – because Kevin had made dinner reservations at one of the oldest Italian restaurants in North Beach, The Stinking Rose: A Garlic Restaurant. It has become famous for celebrating the culinary euphoria of garlic and serving over 3,000 pounds of the pungent herb each month. We ordered the garlic in a hot tub to start, and there was plenty of delicious garlic after that as well. Good thing we were all there so we didn’t offend each other later. It was a delightful evening. Jesses cousin, Thuy (pronounced Twee) came by that evening, she was the next guest to share space at the O’Connor household and we learned we would be in Yosemite at the same time – but she is climbing Half Dome, so not likely we would see her. But, you never know…
I thought it was funny that we brought our laundry with us to their house — usually it’s the kid bringing their laundry over to mom’s! But they were generous enough to let us clean up during our stay. Kevin was up and out early Friday morning, so we hugged goodbye saying next time I see him, he will be holding his newborn daughter. Wow.
As mentioned before, we got in our second yoga class, came back and said bye to Jesse and her passenger. We look forward to visiting again soon.
I was a little bummed to realize too late that it was Outside Lands festival that weekend in SF. Would have been a blast to hang out and enjoy the music, food and sunshine (and fog) — only a short walk from Kev’s house. I had heard about it earlier in the year and didn’t put it together that we would be in the vicinity during our trip – but we had plans to move on, so be it. Another reason to come back (as if we need one).
We made our way back to Marin and later that afternoon headed over to Woodacre to show Brian where I go on meditation retreat — Spirit Rock. There are some hiking trails there, one that quite steep and long that I wanted to have him trek so he can get a sense of what I do when I am there in silence. It was a beautiful afternoon for it and it was a challenging hike. I had done it back in April but in the opposite direction. It was more difficult this direction because the descent was super steep with lose gravel. A few scary moments, but all was well. Except that I did mention rather late in the hike that back in April, there was a large rattlesnake on the property. He staked out a spot on the sidewalk to the meditation hall and basked in the warm sunlight. The staff posted a sandwich board type sign warning of the rattler and we all walked around it when visible and carefully when not. Brian is not a fan of snakes, so that was not a welcome revelation. We didn’t see any but we did see plenty of lizards (that can scare the bejesus out of you how quickly they appear & disappear), deer and turkeys. I really liked sharing that experience with him.
We got back for a nice dinner that evening, hitting Trader Joe’s and BevMo! one more time for ice and a few remaining items we wanted on board before heading off to Carmel-by-the-Sea the next day.
Wanderlust In Silver 